Christmas has passed, New Year’s Eve is on the horizon, college football bowl games are on TV, and the Seahawks are primed for another run to the Super Bowl, so it can mean only one thing: it’s time for the last Sound Session of the year and with that, our Best of 2014 show! This is far from a definitive list and represents just a small sliver of all the great music that dropped this year, but we always enjoy this episode because it gives us a chance to kick back, reflect, and vibe out to 2 hours of amazing records. As always, we’ve included our playlist, some notes on our selections, and a list of some honorable mention records.

If there are any problems with the links or if you’d like to be added to our weekly email list to receive the playlist and download links after every show, just shoot me an email, DJHyphen@gmail.com.

Notes:

1. Kendrick Lamar – We didn’t get the highly anticipated follow up to GKMC, but we did get the first taste from the next album. Kendrick’s self-empowerment anthem was much needed in this environment too.
2. Isaiah Rashad – TDE had a monster year and aside from Kendrick, Q, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock, the future looks especially bright with Isaiah (and SZA). Most talented label in the game?
3. Schoolboy Q – We could have picked “Studio” or “Hell Of A Night” from Q’s album, but we chose this Alchemist produced banger. Congrats to Q on a well deserved Grammy nomination as well!
4. Pusha T – Kanye toying with the “Just To Get A Rep” sample while Pusha flawlessly delivers his standard braggadocio? Yes please.
5. Statik Selektah – Yeah, Action Bronson had a good verse and Royce killed it, but Black Thought BODIED his portion. Verse of the year?
6. PRhyme – Speaking of Royce, his collaborative effort with Premo was unquestionably one of the best projects of the year. Dope beats + dope rhymes. It’s not rocket science.
7. Big K.R.I.T. – Cadillactica is my pick for album of the year, but that said, there really isn’t a singular standout track. The whole album is fantastic, but the 3rd part to K.R.I.T.’s bass anthems is perhaps the catchiest. TWO FIFTEENS!
8. Drake – The record so hot that Diddy actually put hands on Drake for “stealing” the beat…let’s just be glad we never heard Puff’s version.
9. ILoveMakonnen – Only Drake and Kanye can hop on random records and turn them in to some of the biggest tracks of the year. Hell, Makonnen even got a deal and a Grammy nomination out of it.
10. Majid Jordan – PARTYNEXTDOOR is the most hyped OVO artist but this duo are the most talented. Their EP laid the groundwork for an official debut that should make a powerful impact in 2015.
11. Big Sean – An instant anthem.
12. Vanni Meursing – Speaking of anthems, this was Seattle’s unofficial soundtrack during the Seahawks’ last Super Bowl run. Slap.
13. Thaddeus David – Thad linked with 2 talented cats from Portland, flipped the classic Dre sample, and made one of the dopest NW records of the year.
14. Dej Loaf – Drake didn’t even need to hop on this record to make it a hit. He just needed to quote it in an Instagram comment and the world took notice to low key the hardest track of the year.
15. Doja Cat – Every time we played this, the phones lit up and anyone with us in the studio had one response: “yo…who is THAT?”
16. Jessie Ware – Jessie’s Tough Love was one of the best (and most slept on) albums of the year and this BenZel produced slow jam was the highlight. Shout to Miguel on the background vocals too.
17. Dave B – The NW is filled with talent but Dave B is the most exciting up and comer in my book. When the next project drops, he’ll be in the national discussion as well.
18. Fabolous – Typically, NYC hypes up their artists far more than they should be and the buzz doesn’t reach outside the NE, and for good reason. Fab is similar in that he gets love in NYC but has been slept on recently outside the region, but he’s been quietly releasing some really dope projects the last few years. This beat + Jeremih’s hook & Fab’s rhymes should have = a hit record.
19. Tom Misch & Carmody – Tom Misch was my favorite discovery in 2014. This 19 year old singer/producer from London released an EP with Carmody in December but somehow, this track wasn’t included. Flames.
20. Mar – My song of the year pick. Just a highly enjoyable record that has everything mashed up in one track. In a year where rap seemed a little stale, alt-R&B/dance music picked up the pieces nicely.
21. TOKiMONSTA – Anderson Paak’s Venice was one of the best albums of the year, but we went with his contribution to TOKiMONSTA’s EP for our selection. For realla.
22. Esta – Not sure the Soulection camp has ever let us down. Vibes upon vibes upon vibes is what they have.
23. Prince – It was a big year for vibey alt-R&B/ambient soul, but the master also blessed us with some new work and reminded us who influenced all these singers, whether they know it or not.
24. Bas – J. Cole & D’Angelo both dropped projects right at the end of the year, which made it tough to include them in our Best Of, but we had to make sure Cole was represented. This verse might have been his most effortless of the whole year.
25. Melat & Jansport J – This beat. That sample. Those vocals. Yes.
26. Sinead Harnett – We went back to the UK for our last track of the night with this super smooth Snakehips produced R&B jam.

New music on this week’s Sound Session from artists like Pusha T, Common, Rejjie Snow, J Rawls, Isaiah Rashad, Tom Misch, Blu, Masspike Miles, MNEK, Jay Electronica, and more. Plus, we ran that exclusive Big K.R.I.T. record that we world premiered on last week’s show again for y’all.

Speaking of Young Krizzle, be sure to check out the videos of our interviews with Big K.R.I.T. and Kendrick Lamar from our Summer Jam!

In what’s becoming a bit of a tradition, J. Moore and I chopped it up with Kendrick Lamar at our Summer Jam last week (if you missed our last K. Dot Summer Jam interview, peep it here). In front of the natural backdrop of The Gorge, Kendrick talked about his interests outside of music, the possibility of scoring films in the future, what international tour life is like, being an accessible as a celebrity, and more, before taking the stage and performing in front of 15k fans.

Shout to Kendrick, Interscope, TDE, and KUBE for coordinating and the First Ladies for filming/editing!

Apologies for the massive delays on the recent episodes of SNSS, but sometimes real life just likes to keep me busy. This episode (#429) was from September 1st, which was right in the heart of the Bumbershoot Festival weekend. That Saturday, J. Moore and I hosted the main stage at the Key Arena for Joey Bada$$ and Kendrick Lamar’s show. Joey killed it and watching K. Dot take his show to another level every time we see him is always incredible. I had to Vine one of my favorite moments from the show and here’s my favorite pic of the day as well.

Speaking of Kendrick Lamar, our good friends at Hard Knock TV posted some lost footage of our sit down with him from KUBE’s Summer Jam a while back. If you missed that one, be sure to check out the interview here.

While J and the homies enjoyed the rest of the festival that weekend, I jetted down to San Diego to attend a wedding from my good college friends (congrats Andrew & Daya!) and get in some family time. Shout to everyone I caught up with in SoCal and extra shout to J for holding down SNSS that week solo!

This week’s SNSS archive featured new music from Rapsody, denitia and sene, Kent Money, Lupe Fiasco, Royce The Choice, Porter Ray, Ayatollah, Anthony Hamilton, Earl Sweatshirt, Frank Ocean, Lapalux, and more. Of course we also had to spin the new Big Sean record, “Control,” and talk about Kendrick Lamar’s verse that took over social media last week. Was it a game changer? Was it even one of Kendrick’s best verses? Why are the only rappers responding, those who weren’t even mentioned?

J. Moore and I recently had a chance to chop it up with Joey Bada$$ and the Pro Era crew at the Sound Session studio. We touched on a bunch of topics, including how they originally came together,; how they were put on to golden hip-hop by their families, their ambitions outside of hip-hop, and what life is like on tour with the whole crew. We also discussed their upcoming projects, including solos from Joey and CJ Fly, and they spoke on how artists like Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, and the TDE camp are inspiring them as artists and businessmen.

I’m hoping more younger cats in the game follow the same general path as Pro Era. There’s just something naturally ill about that classic boom-bap sound, and as long as artists are being genuine and providing their own twist on it, I’ll never get tired of hearing it.

Shout to Statik Selektah and Jake One for coming through as well, plus the Detooz Films homies for filming!

Kendrick’s album was initially hailed as a potential classic and it continues to get better with age. I speculated that he had it in him back in this post for the “Tammy’s Song” video, and I think he’s pulled it off. good kid, m.a.a.d. city. 5 mics for me.

Not sure why the official YouTube clip got pulled down with a notice saying “UMG Filed A Copyright Claim” on it, but hopefully UMG isn’t standing in the way of Kendrick and TDE running things the way they want. I’m pretty sure the success and classic music they’re releasing proves they know what they’re doing without major label meddling.